Ask the Author: James Snyder
Answered Questions (8)
James Snyder
I knew the X72 killer robot that I had dubbed Maxwell and that had been hunting me for weeks was lung-less and does not breathe. So imagine my surprise the moment, crouched trembling in the dawn bush, I heard a sudden metallic wheezing sound, and turned around to see the glowing red eyes and the titanium chest rising up…and going down.
James Snyder
Where else? To be lurking down the midnight, Gilded-Age streets of French Quarters New Orleans (a city I know and love) with those detective-brothers Shaughnessy on the hunt, hearing the long-dead barroom raucous of notorious Gallatin Street, crossing paths with the occasional exotic femme fatale—as we close in on our elusive but deadly prey. Then finishing off the night with the brothers, sharing an early morning café au lait at the Café Rapida, before stumbling back to my Bourbon Street boarding house, and sleep.
James Snyder
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin
All For Nothing by Walter Kempowski
Faust – Parts I & II by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (A.S. Kline translation)
Pages From the Goncourt Journals by Edmond and Jules De Goncourt
The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki
All For Nothing by Walter Kempowski
Faust – Parts I & II by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (A.S. Kline translation)
Pages From the Goncourt Journals by Edmond and Jules De Goncourt
The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki
James Snyder
Hey Kamryn,
Actually I’ve been writing almost from the time I learned how to hold a pencil and read books. Stories just began to form in my mind and I went with it. I wrote small things at first, bits of description, almost stories, and then moving toward real stories. I did not approach the writing of novels until I gained some maturity, moved out into the world, and got some ups and downs in life. When I left college and joined the military, the bigger stories that could only be told in novel form began to appear. The best way I can describe it is that these larger stories began to mirror the world around me, the life I was living, and eventually the two sides began to meld together. I probably wrote half a dozen or so novels, in various stages of development, before American Warrior, my first published novel, pushed everything aside and took precedent. I write novels, simply, because I have no choice. Connelly Pierce came to me during a road trip I was making with my daughter in the Texas outback. I was actually half way through another novel, but she (Connelly) kept pushing and pushing, and finally I stopped what I was doing and wrote The Beautiful-Ugly. The girl just wouldn’t let it go. Go figure. Anyway, thanks for your interest in my writing.
Actually I’ve been writing almost from the time I learned how to hold a pencil and read books. Stories just began to form in my mind and I went with it. I wrote small things at first, bits of description, almost stories, and then moving toward real stories. I did not approach the writing of novels until I gained some maturity, moved out into the world, and got some ups and downs in life. When I left college and joined the military, the bigger stories that could only be told in novel form began to appear. The best way I can describe it is that these larger stories began to mirror the world around me, the life I was living, and eventually the two sides began to meld together. I probably wrote half a dozen or so novels, in various stages of development, before American Warrior, my first published novel, pushed everything aside and took precedent. I write novels, simply, because I have no choice. Connelly Pierce came to me during a road trip I was making with my daughter in the Texas outback. I was actually half way through another novel, but she (Connelly) kept pushing and pushing, and finally I stopped what I was doing and wrote The Beautiful-Ugly. The girl just wouldn’t let it go. Go figure. Anyway, thanks for your interest in my writing.
James Snyder
Live the life you want to write about. I don't mean go robs banks if you want to write about a bank robber. I do mean get into your life, into the world in general, as deeply as you desire and are able. And the further you are outside your comfort zone, the better it will probably be when you start your world-building. Nobody would have cared about Anna Karenina if she were just a happily married woman, except maybe her husband and family. But throw her into darkness, and all eyes are upon her. I doubt Tolstoy could ever have created someone like that by staying on the farm.
James Snyder
That's easy. Creating worlds, characters, that readers have a hard time believing are not real. Creating worlds readers love living in while they're reading your words, and that they don't want to leave. How cool is that?
James Snyder
I don't recall having to deal with that to any degree. I'm normally juggling several things at once with my writing, and if I get hung up on one, I just shift to another and keep going. But usually I'll just keep stumbling ahead until things pick up again. If all else fails, I'll jump into one of my kayaks and go wave jumping. Having mother nature coming at me over the bow usually washes away any writer's block, if it was there to begin with.
James Snyder
A historical (detective/psychological) thriller partially based upon events taking place in New Orleans at the end of the 19th century. A touch of The Alienist, a touch of The Name of the Rose, a touch of Frankenstein (the monster, not the doctor).
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